Fawcett Society Report: Violence Against Women Is ‘Endemic’

Violence against women and girls is “endemic” in the UK, a leading gender equality campaigner has warned as it calls for the legal system to be overhauled as it is “failing” women.

The organisation’s Sex Discrimination Law Review Panel, chaired by retired High Court Justice Dame Laura Cox, calls for a number of reforms to the legal system.

They include strengthening the laws on sexual harassment at work to protect women from harassment by third parties, making ‘up-skirting’ an offence, and making any breach of a domestic abuse order a criminal offence.

Sam Smethers, chief executive of the Fawcett Society, said: “What we see is a deeply misogynistic culture where harassment and abuse are endemic and normalised coupled with a legal system that lets women down because in many cases it doesn’t provide access to justice.”